The little league Braves are practicing their fundamentals. The boys are focused and the coach is providing instruction while hitting balls to them in the field. The coach is at the plate and the bat is in his right hand. In his left is the ball and with a flick of the wrist the ball is aloft. In a fluid motion, he grasps the bat with both hands and loads his swing as the ball begins it’s descent. He then launches into the swing, his hands guiding the bat to meet the ball. But the bat fails to make contact and the ball falls to the ground with a soft thud. For a moment the field is silent. Then a heckling voice is heard from left field as Adam yells, “STRIKE ONE!”

It sucks when your bed-time trumps the World Series. Although we cheated a bit this year by stretching the bed-time deadline, A2 wasn’t able to stay-up for last night’s 10-inning Game 7 clencher when the Cubs took home the championship. What makes matters worse is I had to be up early for work, so I wasn’t here to give ’em the results and recap the game. So, here’s the announcement, and we had to catch-up via phone later in the day…

One of the cool things about THIS series is it gave me an opportunity to introduce the boys to iconic Cubs announcer Harry Carey, who passed in 1998 (sadly, he never saw the Cubs win a World Series). Anyway, I was introduced to Harry in the late 70s, when cable television came to our neighborhood. All Summer long, we’d watch the Cubs on WGN and Harry “Cub Fan-Bud Man” Carey. Although I was never much of a Cubs fan, I always had a special place in my heart for him.

So, given their dad’s reminiscent tales, what did the boys’ think of Harry? I guess Adam summed it up best with…”He’s old”.